


The Sybil's Curse

by Rozilla



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Awesome Darcy Lewis, F/M, Greek Norse Fusion, Missing Scene, Nightmare Fuel, Norn Cave, Not a Major Character Death, but close
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-09
Updated: 2015-09-09
Packaged: 2018-04-19 23:49:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,370
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4765583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rozilla/pseuds/Rozilla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Thor's vision lingers as he sleeps and dredges up something else he truly fears- along with more hints of some far great evil at play.<br/>(Missing scene from Age of Ultron)</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sybil's Curse

**Author's Note:**

> This is, basically, an explantion as to why Jane wasn't in that cave. I was finally nudged into action by the release of the deleted scenes for AoU.  
> Cause if Joss Whedon doesn't care, then I guess I'll have to do the legwork.  
> Me? Bitter?  
> Yup.

The flight felt muddled and confused, Thor struggled to stay in a straight line as the dream (Vision? Nightmare?) kept tugging at his waking mind. It was getting worse, he knew it. The others were shaken but they at least seemed to have recovered a little- why was he still being affected so? It seemed to come back every time he dared to close his eyes.

He didn’t dare think what would happen when he slept.

He flew to the closest thing he had to a home on Midgard, Jane’s mother’s apartment, now more or less permanently occupied by Erik. He could contact Jane, he could ask her for help, maybe just hear her voice-

_You are a destroyer Odinson-_

He winced and nearly fell, but kept flying long enough to land atop the roof of the flat, crashing onto the concrete and rolling to a stop. He just lay, breathing hard, shuddering and closing his eyes-

_We’re all DEAD_

‘Thor?’

For some blessed few seconds, he thought it was Jane and turned as fast as his aching bones would let him… only to see Darcy, half-asleep, hair a mess, no glasses, dressed in a robe and brightly patterned socks. He pinched the bridge of his nose and got to his feet ‘Darcy… need help.’

‘No shit,’ she stared ‘you look terrible, what happened? Well, aside from Hulk tearing up the joint.’

‘That was…’ He grunted as the face of a Norn floated past his eyeline ‘that was a…an enhanced? A witch and she did something to me… to Banner and the others…’

‘Oh God, magical nonsense, it’s waay too early,’ she took his hand and led him like a sleepy child ‘C’mon, you look like you need a sit down.’

‘Um… thank you,’ he gathered his wits and followed her in, almost keeling over on a table until he reached the couch, collapsing into the soft cushions ‘what time is it?’

‘About one in the morning,’ Darcy went to brew coffee ‘but I wasn’t sleeping anyway.’

‘Was that Thor?’ Ian’s voice came from one of the bedrooms, slightly muffled.

‘It was, I’ll be with you in a minute!’ Darcy called back.

‘I’m not… interrupting?’ Thor smiled a little, grateful to have something to joke about.

‘Eh,’ Darcy shrugged ‘this is an emergency, I can tell.’

Thor nodded, taking the steaming mug ‘Is Jane about?’

‘Well,’ Darcy went over to her bag, pulled out a bulging filofax marked ‘Crazy Boss Lady’ stuffed with brightly coloured notes and opened the book to the present day ‘right now she’s currently halfway to Tel Aviv, should be touching down in about three hours.’

Thor sagged ‘Oh.’

‘Yeah, you can’t phone people on planes and...she was flying from,’ Darcy paused and checked her previous page ‘a conference in Japan. She’ll be in no condition to help you.’

‘You are not with her?’

‘Took some time off,’ Darcy picked up her own coffee ‘I have no interest in attending any more lectures on boring science stuff- if it doesn’t involve the end of the universe, I ain’t interested!’

Thor winced again as a one of the masked figures writhed behind his eyelids.

‘Sorry, bad taste?’ Darcy asked.

‘No… well, yes, but I don’t mind,’ he rubbed his chin ‘I need to talk to someone…’

‘Erik’s teaching tomorrow, you can meet him after he finishes at…’ she retrieved a different filofax marked ‘Professor No Pants’ ‘... three pm, you can meet him outside University College London’s Physics Department. You can use your ‘Totally Not A Superhero’ disguise, I can drop you off if you like?’

Thor hesitated ‘I suppose…’

‘You have a while to wait, maybe you should get some rest.’

‘I think… I think I would like that. Thank you.’

‘No problem, what’re friends for?’

She leaned in to hug him, which he was grateful for, but felt too stiff to move let alone reciprocate.

‘I’ll be in there, we’ll keep it down, but you tend to sleep like the dead-’

ALL DEAD.

‘Yes,’ Thor pulled at his armour ‘thank you Darcy.’

She pulled a face of concern, but relented and waved him good night, closing the bedroom door behind her. Thor stripped to his waist and, reluctantly, fell forward into sleep almost instantly. He couldn’t fight it anymore, maybe if he just faced it-

 

He found a body, small, thin, skeletal, curled up in rags in a corner. He approached it, feeling drawn towards it, even as he recoiled at it’s half-wasted appearance.

‘Did you hear the one about the mortal who fell in love with a god?’

Heimdal laughed and the others laughed with him as Thor got closer.

‘She was so desperate to be with her beloved, she begged the gods to let her taste the golden apples to give her the life of the Aesir!’

He knelt beside it and to his mounting horror it moved-

‘She got the extended life, but- and here’s the funny part Odinson-’

A different voice now, low, sly, mocking… silver-tongued…

‘She forgot to ask for youth.’

Tears welled and his throat seized. The thing moved an arm so wispy it was little more than bone, reaching to him. The face was shrunken, the eyes milky white like Heimdall's, bereft of life and passion but he knew them.

_The Tesseract opened the worlds and armies of foot soldiers and leviathans rained down on the mortals below._

The same voice, not Heimdall’s, but so worryingly familiar ‘So she grew older and older and older, living far beyond the life a mortal should lead, until she was nothing but a skeleton with skin! She became so wretched, she begged for death and the God she loved did the kindest thing he could…’

_The sceptre sat nearby, stoking the rage and egos of the heroes gathered._

‘Tell me Thor, Son of Odin,’ Heimdall screamed above the jeers and the laughter ‘is she truly the beauty you seek?’

_The Aether curled and writhed at the sight of it’s old host, raising Jane’s body up above the wastelands of the Dark Elves._

It couldn’t even speak anymore, it’s voice long gone, but Thor lifted it into his arms as gently as he could. One wrong move and _she_ would crumble like dead leaves. His tears fell onto her leather-like skin, she hardly reacted at the movement.

‘Jane…’ he wept ‘I’m so sorry…’

She turned her head to his voice ‘Th… hhh…’

‘Go on Odinson! End her misery! You knew it would come to this one day!’

Pressing his lips to her forehead, sobbing and choking, he brushed his hand on her cheek and choked out ‘Forgive me, my love.’

‘Ple… please.’

It was so quiet, he almost didn’t hear it, the muscles in her mouth so unused and tired, but he obeyed, even as every part of him ached and cried out with anguish.

‘I love you.’

 

He awoke with a shout, the sound of snapping bone still ringing in his ears and cold with sweat.

‘Well, that explains the storm outside,’ Darcy remarked somewhere nearby ‘you having a nightmare?’

He managed to level his breathing, the dream finally leaving him piece by piece. It was morning now, the sun streamed in from outside, the air fresh from a night of rain.

‘In a sense…’

It was a nightmare, his mind so focused on the apparition of Jane he nearly missed something crucial, something about those artefacts… The Aether, the Tesseract, The Scepter-

‘Call Jane back by the way.’

He snapped around, mind alert at the sound of her name ‘She… she is well?’

‘Yeah, checked into her hotel like half an hour ago, she’s worried sick.’

He very nearly crushed Darcy’s phone in a rush to recall her number, every ring on the other end feeling like a small eternity, but his heart near leapt out his throat when he finally, finally heard her voice cut through.

‘Hello?’

‘Jane,’ he sounded choked ‘it’s… it’s me.’

‘Thor! You’re okay?’

‘Mostly,’ he smiled down the phone, stopping himself sobbing with relief of his own ‘I… I am alright.’

‘Thank God… you have no idea,’ her voice sounded a little rough; sore from crying and too many long distance flights ‘I was… well, doesn’t matter, you’re safe.’

‘Hmm,’ he sat back on the couch ‘Jane, I am so glad to hear your voice.’

‘Same, I mean… your voice, I… I miss you.’

‘As I you,’ he swallowed ‘you are well?’

‘I’m jetlagged and probably going to need a week of sleep, but yeah, I’m good. All the better knowing you’re still alive.’

Thor relaxed a lot more, it was just a dream. Just something the Witch brought up to scare you.

Except… there was...

‘Jane, I think… something’s going on.’

‘Beside Tony Stark needing his ass kicked?’

He chuckled ‘Aside from that, yes, something… big. Something… strange and… if…’

‘Thor, tell me everything.’

He managed to, even with half an eye on Darcy wincing every time she looked at the clock and how much he was spending on a long distance call. He told her about the Witch and her brother, about his vision (though he left out what he saw before he woke up), about what happened to the team.

‘I am sure there’s more to it,’ he took a cup of coffee from Darcy ‘but I need to find a way of revisiting it. There’s a place nearby… it’s a cave, somewhere to help me induce a vision.’

‘That sounds dangerous,’ Jane laughed ‘I… I’m too far away, it’ll take me days to get home, that’s without the delays- the stuff from South Africa’s pretty much grounded all flights to a halt.’

‘I know, I will ask Erik,’ he said, sipping his drink.

‘Will he be safe?’

‘Yes,’ Thor promised ‘I will make sure nothing happens to him.’

‘Sure,’ she was struggling to keep her own tone level ‘that’d be good.’

‘I um… this could mean… it’s further than Earth, something happening across the Realms.’

‘So… you’ll need to go back to Asgard?’

‘I think so, but not until I find out what is happening and Ultron is stopped.’

‘Rest up, get some food, then go see Erik, tell him I’ll kill him if you die.’

‘I shall,’ he sighed ‘I shall… when your work is finished, I’ll return.’

‘And take me with you? If it’s to do with the Aether-’

‘Then I shall take you, I give you my word, but only when your work is completed.’

‘I think the potential end of the Universe is more important than the lecture circuit,’ Jane sighed when she heard Darcy snort from across the room ‘tell Darcy I’ll cover the cost of the phone call so stop fretting.’

‘You’d better!’ Darcy shouted, pouring some cereal. Thor couldn’t help but smile.

‘It is more important, but your work on Earth is vital- you’re building bridges my love, bridges that will help connect the worlds in so many new ways.’

Jane sighed deeply ‘God… you’re good at charming.’

‘I know.’

She snorted ‘Is this some ruse to keep me safe? Cause you know that annoys the crap out of me.’

‘No, it is me making sure your work does not suffer, it could be needed if what I saw was truly… well, we may be in need of the weapons you devised in Greenwich.’

‘Okay… I’ll work on that,’ she coughed ‘I uh… I gotta go, I have a whole bunch of stuff to do before I give this talk and… um… well, my eyeliner has run and I look like Alice Cooper on meth so…’

He nodded ‘Then go, I shall try to keep you informed.’

‘Try to, but only if it keeps your team safe.’

‘I know.’

‘Good.’

‘Jane?’

‘Hmm?’

‘I love you,’ he felt like a weight was taken from him, to say it aloud.

‘Love you too,’ she replied ‘please stay safe.’

‘I’ll try.’

Jane’s last whispered ‘Bye’ still lingered as she hung up, he held the phone, staring at it to finally clear his mind… if only briefly.

‘So, first, breakfast,’ Darcy trilled, trying to lighten the mood ‘then… whatever magical hoo-haa you’re doing with Erik. Pancakes?’

‘Many, many pancakes please,’ he stood up, his legs thankfully co-operating.

‘Your hoodie and casuals are in the wardrobe in our room, Ian’s in there but he’s asleep so it’s cool.’

Thor nodded, ignoring the fact that Ian was naked by for a sheet across his middle, which thankfully covered what Thor really could have done without seeing. He took out the clothes he set aside for going about London and headed for the bathroom, deciding he had earned a shower and some sustenance.

That vision was not real… but there was something it was trying to tell him. Something that he must’ve known for a long time, but the Witch managing to bring it to the fore, if only in fragments. The Norns… he saw them in his dream… they certainly looked like Norns, the bad ones at any rate.

‘Good men have good Norns who guide them in their fate,’ his mother had said ‘but Bad men, the ones foul at their very core, they have evil Norns. Both have the capacity for greatness and to change their fate, but it is the Norns who know which path that man walks.’

Thor washed and ate, contemplating this.

‘Still want me to drop you off?’ Darcy took his empty plate.

‘Yes, I’ll wait outside for him.’

‘Cool, I’ll stay here, I imagine there’s going to be some questions coming my way, what with being Jane’s PA an’ all.’

She was very proud of her title.

‘I imagine so, but… if you would-’

‘Not mention you were here? C’mon, what’d you take me for? You can stay as long as you need. Don’t suppose Steve’s turning up at some point?’

‘No, sorry.’

‘Never mind, but next time okay? Where are they any way?’

‘Somewhere safe.’

‘Good, cause they are not popular right now. Hope you guys win cause… you know, we could all die.’

Thor thought about his comrades in the Avengers, how he would have to tell them what he saw. Or at least he would… if he survived this.


End file.
